This theory has been developed by myself, to determine when is the best time to perform a certain recipe. This is most useful when you have many potential recipes/skills to chose from so that you can make the best use of the current set of factors. This can also be used to decide how long to wait before attempting a specific recipe.

This theory, and its suggestions apply to all crafts, except fishing. Fishing is unique on its own, and does not work in the same manner. To add, desynthesis should also be excluded from this theory. This theory is primiarily for deciding skill up factors, and skilling on desythesis is impractical.

Theory:

Gaining skill in any craft, is influenced by a number factors. Proven influences are things such as day of the week, in relation to the crystal being used, moon phase, and skill level gap. Many people believe that having synth support can help or hinder the gaining of skill, and my thread will support that. The last controversial influence would be the direction one is facing while crafting. I believe prior to reaching the cap for a certain recipe, this definitely can have an effect. The effect of this does seem to lessen after a recipe has reached its cap.

The Formula:

Skill Cap -Your skill -(Sum of "The Factors") =X

The Skill Cap The maximum skill level attained from this recipe. This number can be attained from the many online websites that provide crafting information.

Your Skill This information is easily attained in game from your status menu. The number to use in this formula is the lowest full skill level you have completed, as displayed in this menu. My experience sees no difference in performing a recipe with skill level 54.2 or 54.9. Only full levels are considered. Guild items that add +skill levels, should be considered as a solid skill number, and be added to the number listed in your status window.

"The Factors" Bellow is the list of factors that can directly influence the success rate of a recipe, and with the formula, they can also be used to determine the likely hood of receiving a skill up.

+1 Same day as crystal, or lights day (for non-dark crystal recipe) -1 Opposite day to crystal (day is strong against crystal), or darks day (for non-dark crystal recipe) +1 Full moon 0Half Moon -1 New moon +2 Paid Synth Support +1 Free Synth Support +.5 Same direction as crystal -.5 Opposite direction to crystal (direction strong against crystal)

Note: The number to apply based on moon phase can be adjusted to levels between 1 and 0 (negative or positive) based on the percentage difference between half and full moon. A 75% Waxing moon phase would result in a +0.5

"X" Now for the "X". This is the result of the formula, and bellow is what you can expect from various numbers.

<0 The Redundant zone Skill ups can be harder to attain The recipe is too easy to improve your skill Just to many factors helping you succeed, so no chance to learn

0-2 The Success zone Very good rate of success Skill ups will happen, but some will be lost due to the recipe being easy to your current skills. Best used when the recipe is break even or profit, and/or when the ingredients are expensive.

2-4 The Prime Skill up zone Very good rate for skill ups Failures will happen, but at a fair trade off for skill ups (in most cases) For anywhere from 7/8-1 levels from cap, it is fairly easy to get the "X" to be in this range

4-6 Skill from fails zone OK rate for skill ups Best to be within 5 levels of cap so that skill ups can still be gotten from failures. 5 is not the "X" value, but just the rigid calculation of cap - skill. Supplies better be cheap, or you will be digging yourself into a hole

>6 High risk, low reward zone No good reason to be in this zone Only for the pure power leveler, who could care less about expenses Please move onto another craft/recipe before wasting your gil here.

Examples: Thanks Divisortheory for the examples, I have not made up more of my own yet.

With so many factors to effect your crafting, it is no wonder people can scratch there heads when they do 30 synths and fail every single time with zero skill ups. The guide they are reading is telling them to do this certain recipe at the current level they are at. Are the authors of the guide crazy? No. Do they provide enough information so you know that to start the recipe with a 9 level gap, you need other criteria, that is not listed, before you can even imagine getting a single skill up? No.

This guide lets you decide on your own what is best to skill up on, at the exact moment in Vandiel time you are currently in. The guides in turn will direct you to recipes that possibly offer a higher NPC return, or a better AH sale rate. With both sets of information, you should be set to attain great crafting achievements.

Good luck to all FFXI crafters, and keep up the good work.

Edit - Added Divisortheory's example to OP, so there would be examples for future readers to help understand. Edit - Added guild equipment items. These additions need to be considered as your solid skill level. Edit - Added notation to make it clear that max of 5 level gap for failure skill ups is not an X value, but a rigid calculation between cap and skill. Edit - Added notation to excluded desythesis.

I would like to note that Purplenv claims to have developed this theory himself, which does not give credit to other crafters who had contributed to crafting theory prior to his post. He also fails to acknowledge the hundreds of crafters who contributed to things as simple as recipe lists and skill cap info, (which used to be incomplete and hard to come by because the guild NPCs didn't always give you a list of recipes), which he, no doubt, also took advantage of to formulate his theory.

I would like to note that Purplenv claims to have developed this theory herself, which does not give credit to other crafters who had contributed to crafting theory prior to her post. She also fails to acknowledge the hundred of crafters who contributed to things as simple as recipe lists and skill cap info, (which used to be incomplete and hard to come by because the guild NPCs didn't always give you a list of recipes), which she, no doubt, also took advantage of to formulate "her" theory.

You do realize that while the list on the site might have been deemed incomplete and annoying to obtain from the guild NPCs..they DID eventually give you all the recipes (with 2-3 exceptions in cooking). The recipe listed in the post you quoted was a very common one before the patch that provided the listing.

You know, If she deleted the content of her post, perhaps you should respect her decision, regardless of politics, that she does not wish for it to exist.

The information in the post, albeit pretty common knowledge for vetern players, is a very good reference to point to for new players as they come in with the very common question.

Pointing them to the sticky which contains a now useless link seems somewhat stupid.

In my opinion...the information is more important to the greater good. Come three weeks from now, I really doubt that a brand new player will know nor care about the reason why Purplenv did what (s)he did. A crafter coming to this board looks for information and advice, not politics.

As far as her wishes and intent on deleting the post...I'd think that would be aimed more at harming the site and not the playerbase. If it was intended to hurt the playerbase, well that's pretty low and sad since it was touted as a basis for many theories to follow.

Additionally, the LOSS of this information, for absolutely petty reasons - and it IS petty - don't financially support the site, nor post any additional helpful information, fine. Until we know WHO the damned buyer is, leave the existing database of information alone - only start nuking if it really was IGE's parent company that bought Allakhazam out.

This is a classic example of why knee-jerkism makes everyone look like an ***.

Or ... um ... instead of making your own political statement about Purplnv's political statement, you could have respected his wishes. He obviously does not wish his name to be associated with this site. And you have violated his wishes.

If you really wanted this information to remain, republish it. Associate your *own* name with Alla, not Purplnv's. Even better, link to other sites that have it.

The original post contained a ton of information that had been sniffed out by hundreds, if not thousands of crafters over the course of years; all of us who discuss crafting theory at all are standing on the shoulders of giants and owe a debt to those who figured out the meat and bones of crafting before most of us ever picked up the game. On the other hand, Purplenv did have a great post--easy to follow, concise, and novel in its outlook on the data (though the data itself was around long before the post).

So whose information is it? Is it completely original research that no one before has had a handle on? Or is it a new take on old information? If it's the latter, then Pitlourde had every right to "reprint" it as Purplenv is not the sole controller of that information. In fact, the same information--even the same theory about how the data comes together--is available elsewhere in bits and pieces; all Pitlourde did was make it available here again and give due credit to the author. Many people wouldn't even have done that. Would it have been preferable if he'd just plagiarized it directly without crediting the original author or maybe given it just enough of a cursory rewrite to look like his own work?

Maybe more of us with an apolitical, wait-and-see attitude about the Alla buyout should ensure that as little information as possible is lost due to some individuals' kneejerk reactions to it.

The point is, the information was removed by the creator deliberately. They did not wish it to remain here. Everyone has the right to change their posts- that's what the edit and delete options are for, after all.

Pitlourde has decided to usurp that right by copying a post and reposting it on the forum here. Word for word. If that isn't disrespectful and wrong, what is?

The information is hardly being "destroyed"- it simply has been removed from the information available here. It does reduce what's available on Allakhazam- and that was the point of the original post being deleted. Purplenv did not want his work associated with the site anymore, due to it's association with a real-money trader company (IGE). Pitlourde, please delete the copy here and never do this again.

As to the portion copied being Purplenv's, please read one of the first lines:

"This theory has been developed by myself, to determine when is the best time to perform a certain recipe."

Edited, Tue May 9 11:56:30 2006 by Morgrist

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Alas, poor FFXIClopedia. It's end was writ in greed and lulz, and ended with a /.

It is easy to understand the actions of both purplenv and Pitlourde. Purplenv wants to disassociate from a company that he doesnt agree with and Pitlourde wants to preserve information that he considers valuable. Unfortunately both people could have handled themselves better in their actions.

Purplenv and Co. - If you delete info from this site could you please find an alternate location on a more agreeable site to post your info? This ensures that knowledge is preserved and your sensibilities remain intact. Also providing a link to the new location for a designated amount of time (maybe a month) will ensure that those who agree with you will be able to find the info while those that accept alla the way it is will eventually lose your info as a resource.

Pitlourde and Co. - You have no moral right to do what you did. Your intentions might be in the right place, but that doesn't excuse you from usurping Purplenv's rights to his intellectual property. He spent valuable time experimenting, researching, compiling, writing and editing the material you copied and pasted. Whether or not his conclusions are based partially on the work of others it is still his property since he is the one that created it. If you want people to know when to craft for MAX SKILL ups then take the time to do all the things that Purplenv did and create your own original post. If you dont want to do the work he did then at least contact Purplenv and ask him if you can post his info on another site or use it in any other way. Other then that you should leave what he made alone. If he doesn't want that post on Allakhazam and he made the effort to remove it then you should respect that and not repost it.

Im not going to comment on whether or not this post is good, bad or evil.

I just want to know where all of this people are going to post now? Many missing posts had a wealth of information and even if that particular information is not reproduced elsewhere, I am still interested in the future posts from these authours.

http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/ as mentioned has very, very good information. Way more up to date than Alla and a better layout. Minus the jerks and ratings ****'s that are (were?) at this site. Plus a good layout. Shake well, allow to settle, enjoy.

The last thing I'd want to do is follow some of the people who left, this place is ... almost peaceful now.

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I tell you, we are here on Earth to **** around, and don’t let anybody tell you different.

GG, you have just opened up yourself to the possible lawsuit. Good Luck.

It's "plagiarism," and it refers to misrepresenting work as your own--something that Pitlourde did not do. I'd love to see someone try to file suit on that post as plagiarism; it'd give some lawyer a huge laugh.

GG, you have just opened up yourself to the possible lawsuit. Good Luck.

It's "plagiarism," and it refers to misrepresenting work as your own--something that Pitlourde did not do. I'd love to see someone try to file suit on that post as plagiarism; it'd give some lawyer a huge laugh.

1) Noted.

2) You don't need to be right to sue. Its the Jury that has to think that in a civil suit.

I would like to note that Purplenv claims to have developed this theory herself, which does not give credit to other crafters who had contributed to crafting theory prior to her post. She also fails to acknowledge the hundred of crafters who contributed to things as simple as recipe lists and skill cap info, (which used to be incomplete and hard to come by because the guild NPCs didn't always give you a list of recipes), which she, no doubt, also took advantage of to formulate "her" theory.

So you feel the post was good enough that you had to repost it, even though he wanted it removed, and then go on to talk **** about the post. Did you see any posts in that thread where the crafters that worked directly with him complained about not getting credit? Did you see anyone complain about not getting credit?

The info supplied by Purplenv is public domain, based on information from the public domain, and the OP HAS mentioned his resource.

The need of the public far outweigh the need of an individual.

You are incorrect. Posting in the public domain does not make the material public domain. While parts of the original work were taken from the work of others, the piece itself was an original. The OP from Purplenv is covered under copyright law and doing a direct copy of the work, regardless of credit given, is quite probably illegal.

That's not to say that the ideas represented in the Purplenv's post can't be copied and rewritten by someone else, but the original belongs to him and him alone. Others can use his work much as he's used the work of others to formulate his idea. Others can take the exact same ideas and present it in a different format and that's cool too. You can't, however, just copy something and use it without the permission of the author while using the weak *** excuse "the needs of many . . ." because that just won't hold water.

Furthermore, it's not as simple as calling up a lawyer and saying "I want to sue this guy for copying my stuff." as you might see some other instances where people file suit. Copyright infringement is usually a sticky issue and becomes even more convoluted when dealing with the interweb. The likelyhood of legal action is fairly slim unless Purplenv REALLY REALLY wants to make a point . . . and has a lot of money, lawyers are spendy.

Thank you. I've updated the OP to reflect the general consensus that Purplenv is, in fact, male.

I have found that the discussions on these boards provide far more insight than the guides and posts that spark them. So, I am adding a link to the original thread to provide a reference to the discussion following the OP.

It has been pointed out that it is disrespectful to repost this information here when the author himself clearly doesn't want it here. For the author to rob this information from the very community which helped create it is even more disrespectful.

On another note, it seems that some have noticed a shift in the way lunar and solar elements are affecting crafting results. I am also unaware of any studies that have attempted to determine elemental affinities of the solar calendar. I was wondering if this shift may actually be caused by the interaction of the solar and lunar calendars in this game, and would therefore be predictable.

I believe this is important because I have noticed that elemental theories seem have influences beyond crafting. Extending to gardening, HELM activities, mob strength and weakness, skill chain and magic burst, magic and physical resistances, strength and efficacy of meds, etc.

Specifically, can anyone confirm exactly how many days there are in a Vana 'diel year? How many months? Exactly, how many days per month are there? Is there a leap year? If so, when or how often?

This is the information that is needed to even begin a comprehensive study of the in game solar cycles.

3) "If it's posted to Usenet it's in the public domain." False. Nothing modern and creative is in the public domain anymore unless the owner explicitly puts it in the public domain(*). Explicitly, as in you have a note from the author/owner saying, "I grant this to the public domain." Those exact words or words very much like them.

http://www.antionline.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=231259 is a post I made on another forum when we started dealing with a lot of cut and paste threads dealing with computer security related issues. Title 17 of the United States Code has all the copywrite info if you really want to read a LOT of boring government written documentation.

god get a life, whoooaaaa you're going to get sued over some information that is in 20 other threads daily on this site about final fantasy crafting. sigh who cares if allah got bought out, just play the game and have fun, im here to help out and learn whether ige bought the site or not.

4. I did not, at the time of deletion, repost to a new public location, I fealt that the number of sources already existing for my theory was adequit.

5. Do I really care if you feel the need to repost my theory? Nope. I removed the original. I made my stand. I do not wish to hurt the crafting community, so I agree the information should remain available. If you think that people can't find it elsewhere, then I guess you needed to post it here.

Quote:

I would like to note that Purplenv claims to have developed this theory himself, which does not give credit to other crafters who had contributed to crafting theory prior to his post. He also fails to acknowledge the hundreds of crafters who contributed to things as simple as recipe lists and skill cap info, (which used to be incomplete and hard to come by because the guild NPCs didn't always give you a list of recipes), which he, no doubt, also took advantage of to formulate his theory.

The theory to maximize skill ups as posted, is mine. It came from my head, it was actually written by myself while sitting at my desk, at work, on a particularly slow day. I am infact typing from that same desk now.

The source was only my memory, of specific crafting results. There were no charts, no master lists, no parsing software to compile a spreadsheet from 10k synthesis. This theory was put on paper, to be tested by all, and intially I was not even sure it would be proven effective. In the end it was.

Recipe lists, and skill up guides of the time were very much a failure. Level ranges were 5-10 levels, with no guidance as to which day/moon/direction criteria were to be used over the full level range.

The Thoery was unique, as it was not recipe specific. It was to cover ALL recipes, for ALL of Vandiel.

Pitlourde; Thank you for reposting this. I was looking for it, then noticed your rpely in his thread. I'm surprised at all the flac you;ve recieved. Thank you for not backing down due to it.

I would have reposted it when I found it as well :)

Sure, we should respect his choice to stand against Alla's sellout which occured 6 months before. However, we have a choice to preserve the community and its resources as well. I'm glad for the choice you chose.

Saving of information is important and I don’t think Pitlourde plagiarized as they quoted the original author and gave credit to them even if they did not respect Purplenv's wish. I agree that this information can be found throughout the web and it is unfortunate that it was not readily available to members of Alla. Purplenv made their point clear and I will respect that 110%. (Though I have personal opinions about the buy-out matter and if you note I’m not registered and will remain that way those threads are in other areas of this forum).

For those interested CosmicEnigma has created a compass. It will be undergoing a revision or two in the near future. It was actually Purplenv’s post and other information that helped in its creation. You can find it here or go to www.cosmicenigma.net and click on Crafting in the menu on the left.

Edited, Jun 11th 2006 at 9:16am EST by cuteawto

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But you broke into heaven’s immortal store, Where virtue, honor, wit, and beauty lay; Which taking thence you have escaped away, Yet stand as free as ere you did before; Michael Drayton: (1563-1631) Idea (sonnet 4, l. 9–12)

Why are you still talking about plagiarism? Purplenv has posted and said he didnt care... so no one is going to sue... plagiarism or not it does not matter anymore. Now that is taken care of can we please return this to a crafting thread? Thank you and have a nic day.